OmniFlop is a ‘universal’ floppy disk reader, writer, and tester for the IBM PC or compatible which can handle alien floppy disk formats not normally supported by DOS, Windows and Linux. It was first released in December 2004.

OmniFlop exploits the original hardware design of the IBM PC to read, write and format disks using formats long since forgotten. You need a PC with built-in floppy drive hardware to use it. It will not work with software simulations, e.g. VirtualBox or VFD.

The OmniFlop supplied here will allow you to image (read) a whole floppy disk into one file in Windows, write an image back to a floppy disk, or format a floppy disk so a disk image can be written to it. OmniFlop does not give you access to the individual files, documents, programs, robot commands or synthesizer samples (or whatever else is stored on the disk), nor will it allow you to edit files, documents, programs, robot commands or synthesizer samples. If you want to access files, for example, on these disks then you need more - you will need to use OmniFlop to image the disk, then other software to interpret the filing system - see here. OmniFlop alone only handles whole disks.

OmniFlop consists of two Windows drivers plus a Wizard. The Wizard can be used without installing the drivers, but only the ‘standard’ DOS formats can then be read, written or tested – none of the alien ‘extended formats’ will be available.